The Quiet Conservative September 8, 2009
Astro Turf
As August ended many Americans were finally seeing how their liberal elected officials really view
their constituencies: as rubes, as sheep, as scum, as ignorant stooges, as tedious necessities that must
be endured in order to perpetuate the sham of representation, and as the mob. The elite are amazed at
the restlessness of the serfs.
This shocking rebellion began with the town halls. As soon as Congress broke for recess the regularly
scheduled dog and pony shows where politicians pressed the flesh for future votes turned sour. The
controversial health care bill was the dead stinking fish in the nose of too many people and these people
were motivated enough to attend the meetings. It soon became apparent to the leaders of the Socialist
Party...can we say that openly yet?...that things were getting out of hand. Nancy Pelosi and Harry
Reid called them Nazis and evil doers, names they never would have attached to Al Qaeda. But people
were not so bullied. Reading the bill posted online at www.thomas.gov the house bill was disturbing in
both what it did say, and the length it went to be vague in what it did not say.
The lid would not be screwed down on this story. Youtube and bloggers began reporting on the
town halls and the left scrambled to deal with the wreckage resulting from citizens questioning their
government. This is how Congress spent their vacation:
-When Jim Moran (D) Virginia had a town hall in August he demanded to see the identification of a
town hall attendee who wanted to ask a question. He called the man a "plant." The man showed his
license proving he was a constituent. This same congressman voted against requiring identification at
the polls when voting.
- According to the Denver post In Denver 11 windows were broken out at the Democratic Party
Headquarters. Signs promoting health care reform were damaged. In shades of the Reichstag fire in
Germany the suspect was caught and turned out to be a liberal activist Maurice Schwenkler, who was
connected in the past to a liberal 527 group. The goal? The same as the Reichstag fire, of course. Do
the damage yourself and blame the opposition.
-Denver was also the site of an Organizing for America bus bringing in counter protesters with
professionally made signs to try and stamp out dissent by honest citizens who weren't paid to be there.
This was caught on camera and posted on the web by individuals- as this seems to be the new press.
The established one is A.W.O.L.
-Henry Waxman (D) Ca. held a town hall with only reserved seats and preselected written questions.
Can't let it get out of hand with everyday voters expressing their opinions. What would that do to the
cause of Socialism?
-In Washington State Democrat Jay Inslee had an embarrassing email leak where he was coordinating
with Organizing for America and others to pack the town halls with Democrat plants in an effort to
drown out constituent attendance.
-Congressman Brian Baird (D) WA. made the mistake of labeling health care protesters at town hall
meetings as "brownshirts." This of course, upset the little people, including a marine veteran David
Hedrick who brought him up short in the audience. Odd isn't it? A marine not liking being compared to
a Nazi by a politician? Who knew? Not this congressman apparently.
-President Obama's rigged town hall in Montana was easily investigated, but not by the press, to show
the meeting was held in a hanger in an out of the way airport. The tickets were handed out to those in
the know. The local printer was hired to print 1,500 tickets and 600 were handed out. You do the
math. The SEIU sent a bus of thugs to threaten protesters and one of them was arrested by the local
police. The event was orchestrated right down to the yelling crowd thrilled to see the president
promote health care while the people of Montana were kept out and safely away from the show.
-At Barney Frank's (D) MA, town hall, busy as ever insulting the intelligence of his constituents and
laughing as they re-elect him time after time he told one woman he had no more interest talking to her
than he would to a dining room table. Of note, he upbraided one woman when she compared Obama
to Hitler only for enterprising Internet folks to find out later the woman was a far left fringe Democrat.
-Congressman Waxman (D) CA, and Congressman Stupak (D) MI, threatened insurance companies
with investigations into everything they do, a strong arming attempt to make them crumble before the
threat of Federal destruction. A very valid fear after the government made sure Bank of America
bought Merrill Lynch and the investors got beaten up over the GM bailout.
-For Congressman Mark Schauer (D)MI, supporters were bused in from around the state to counteract
everyday citizens trying to talk to their congressman. The SEIU admitted they bused them in,
Organizing for America denied it, then hung up on a follow up when people began sending in pictures
of the buses.
-No slouch in the crooked department, Congressman Alan Grayson (D) of Florida hit one out
of the park when the local Democratic Party held a meeting in the same room as the town hall,
but an hour before. When the meeting ended, they simply stayed in their seats. The people
who had been waiting outside for hours couldn't get in, the room was already full. That's
classic. 95 of the 126 seats were full before the doors opened to admit 31 of the 1,500 people
that had waited patiently outside.
-The White House got caught spamming people with emails, denied it, then admitted it but said it was
from outside groups that had forwarded the emails. The White House also had the ignoble distinction
of being the first White House in history to have a snitch on your neighbor web site flag@whitehouse.
gov. There is no word if they deleted the emails in violation of federal law or kept them in violation of
federal law. The press isn't interested. The White House finalized the matter with what equates to: We
haven’t done anything wrong. We have never done anything wrong. We are changing the procedures
to what we weren't doing, and won’t do it again.
-The White House double crossed big pharmaceutical who thought they could do a deal with Socialism.
They were going to promote the health care reform platform in return for a cap on the Fed's gutting of
their industry. The deal first surfaced with Barclay's investment summary: You may recall that the
pharmaceutical industry (PhRMA) on June 20 crafted a "deal" with Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont)
regarding a pledge of $80 billion in savings, including a 50% reduction in the price of branded
drugs bought by elderly people who are most vulnerable to the gaps in the current government
supported coverage ("donut hole" in Medicare Part D). For more information, please see our June
26 note titled "Major Pharmaceuticals: $80B Deal: Less than what meets the eye." We understand
from our consultants in Washington that yesterday PhRMA has struck a deal with the White House
which is similar to the senate version. This deal underscores that the Obama Administration is open
to negotiations/deals with stake holders involved in order to steer the health care reform bill with
bipartisan support and within the aggressive time frame set. It also reinforces our view that health
care reforms may not be as bad as previously expected by many investor. When the deal was
exposed, it was disavowed.
-President Obama's Grand Junction Colorado town hall had the delightful expose by bloggers who took
the chartered bus to the event and were given lunch, water bottles, and pre printed signs. But it is the
National Democrats who call health care protesters "astroturf."
-The president made the huge mistake of comparing private health insurance to Fed Ex and UPS while
comparing the government health care option to the post office. Then saying it is the post office that
has all the problems. I don't think he thought that one through before he said it. Most people have not
had good experience waiting at the post office for service.
-Sheila Jackson Lee (D) TX. had a great big hug for Roxana Mayer, Democratic state delegate for
Obama, who presented herself as a pediatric primary care physician to the Houston Chronicle. When
busted, the Houston Chronicle changed their online reporting to remove the lie but didn't issue a
correction. Instead it went down the memory hole. The rest of the town hall didn't go well for
Congressman Lee, who had the meeting memorialized on You Tube for blowing off a citizen asking a
question to talk on her cell phone. Voters, they can be so annoying, can't they?
-In Baton Rouge, Louisiana ACORN and the local police bullied citizens outside a town hall, with
police threatening to arrest ordinary people who wanted to talk to people on the sidewalk about health
care reform. Those in Obama shirts weren't addressed.
-Sherrod Brown (D) Ohio was a bit more clever than most of his colleagues. When people called his
office at the beginning of the break they were told he wouldn't be holding a town hall. Then, he
announced one after five P.M. for the next day and snuck the meeting in before most people knew.
He still had a rocky time.
-Harry Reid (D)NV. Called protesters "Evil doers." Says it all. Loved Code Pink. Declared the surge
in Iraq a failure even before it was tried. If there is anything positive for America I guess in his mind it
is evil.
-AARP endorsed the Obama plan before they didn't endorse it. The president announced the AARP
was on board with a plan that would very likely ration care to the elderly, even acknowledged by the
president in his examples. This infuriated AARP members and AARP quickly came out saying even
though they were spending ten million dollars in an ad campaign to endorse the plan they weren't
endorsing anything. A meeting of AARP members and the AARP management ended when AARP
staff stormed out and took their microphones with them.
-At Obama's initial town hall in Portsmouth his planted questioners included a little girl who was
reading off a card. Her mom, it turns out, is Kathleen Manning Hall and she had a great picture of
herself meeting Obama in person on her Facebook page. Ms. Hall is a Massachusetts Democratic
operative who organized a group to go to this town hall...in New Hampshire.
-At Congressman Dingell's (D)MI a man with a handicapped son, Mike Solis, was upset when
Congressman Dingell told him an amendment was in the bill to address the handicapped like his son.
Mr. Solis, who had researched the bill, knew this was a lie. For his reward Speaker Pelosi and Denny
Hoyer called protesters like him "Un-American." After the meeting Mr. Solis' family was threatened
that very night. Is this an example of America? A man with a son with cerebral palsy who is afraid for
his son has thugs in the night coming to his house and threatening his family.
-Congressman Dennis Moore (D) KS, didn't have a town hall. He hid during the break from his
constituency. He did send out surveys. I looked at the survey. It wasn't an honest one.
-Who can forget Russ Carnahan's (D)MO, town hall when people weren't allowed in the front door but
a side handicapped access door was busy admitting SEIU union people in Obama t-shirts?
-Outside Congressman Carnahan's (D) MO, town hall in St. Louis a conservative activist was attacked
and beaten by SEIU union thugs. The thugs were arrested on the scene as well as a female union thug
who attacked a woman videotaping the attack.
These stories are out there. It was a busy, crazy break for elitists that weren't used to the people
speaking up. Whether they ignore the peasants or not now that they are back in session remains to be
seen. People who stayed home in the last election between the liberal John McCain and the Marxist
Barack Obama are hopping mad. Health care may be the third rail of politics for the Democratic Party
now as it was in 1993. And this isn't the only economy/people killer out there. Cap and Trade is the
next vampire of state control out of the old Soviet closet that is ready to be rushed through Congress.
It has been plain over the past month that the smears by the press and the Democratic elite put out on
the people have not suppressed dissent, it has inflamed it. The only "astroturf" caught on video, by
camera, and in the blogs, have been union thugs and bussed-in socialists trying to counter the common
working American who is afraid his health care, and that of his family, is being imperiled in a strict
power grab by people who hate freedom, the individual, and prosperity and are actively trying to take
that freedom, prosperity, and individuality away.